The present invention relates to apparatus for use in the process of installing a handrail on a wall extending along a stairway. The apparatus temporarily holds the handrail in a position extending parallel to the direction of the treads of the stairway.
Typically, a stairway between floors of a building will incline upwardly along a vertical wall, and persons ascending or descending the stairway move parallel to the associated vertical wall. Quite often, a handrail is mounted on the wall to assist the person in moving up or down the stairway.
The handrail is generally positioned an appropriate distance above the stairway treads, and parallel to the nosing line of the stairway, which line is an imaginary diagonal line through the front edges of the stairway. The angulation or slope of the nosing line is related to the stairway length or flight) and its horizontal displacement (or run). Stairways have different lengths and slopes; the associated handrails have correspondingly different slopes or angulations.
Installation of handrails is often carried out without precise measurements of the handrail mounting locations. Errors in handrail positioning can readily occur. In one known installation method, two or more upright wooden boards are nailed to the steps of a stairway at spaced points along the stairway length. The boards are formed to desired lengths so that the upper ends of the upright boards establish locations for the handrail mounting brackets. Notches may be formed in the upper ends of the boards to support the handrail while the mounting brackets are being secured.
The present invention provides an apparatus for more precisely positioning the handrail relative to a stairway and its treads. The handrail positioning apparatus is so adapted that the handrail has the required slope (i.e., parallel to the stairway nosing line), and also a selected height above the stairway tread. Typically, the handrail height will vary from about thirty inches to about thirty-four inches, depending on individual preference. The handrail positioning apparatus of the present invention is vertically adjustable to provide a range of different handrail heights, e.g., from about thirty inches to about thirty-four inches.
In a preferred form of the invention, the apparatus comprises two upright stanchions adapted to be individually anchored to tread areas of a stairway at spaced points along the stairway length. Typically, one stanchion will be attached to a tread near the lower end of the stairway, and the other stanchion will be secured to a tread near the upper end of the stairway. Each stanchion extends vertically upwardly from the stairway tread. Each carries a tiltable platform near its tipper end. Conventional C-clamps are typically used to clamp a handrail to the spaced platforms so that the handrail is supported in an inclined position while the handrail mounting brackets are secured to the vertical building wall adjacent to the stairway. Each platform being tiltable, the platform surface conforms to the undersurface of the handrail so that the handrail may have any desired slope, while the C-clamps securely bold the handrail against the platform irrespective of handrail slope.
Preferably, each stanchion includes a screw jack for raising or lowering the platform at the upper end of the stanchion. Scale markings on the screw jack indicate the height of the platform above the associated stairway tread. The installer of the handrail can thus achieve a desired handrail height merely by looking at the scale markings and adjusting the jack structure upwardly or downwardly.
The apparatus is designed for ease and convenience of use by persons having no special skill in trigonometry or mathematics.